UKC

Fancy a film? Stallone, Eastwood, Cruise, O'Donnell?

Tom Lawfield searches the back shelves of the video store for climbing movies and discovers what they all have in common..


http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=155

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

... and rock climbing always involves a lot of hanging off one hand trying to put a big cam into a crack that is just out of reach!

"The Descent" has some "fantastic" rock-climbing scenes as well: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435625/

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

No one ever needs a shit when they're harnessed up in climbing movies either.

Davie

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Surely the best climbing film out of this collection!

(apart from Touch' Void) a course :

K2 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102178/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000C24GD/qid=1135986299/sr=8-1/r...

In reply to michel4388:


Full of suspense and hardly spoilt by the smattering of reality. The only closeup of a WC friend I've seen in the cinema (outside of a mountain film festival).

Highly recommended, but don't watch it on your own

In reply to SteveM: Wasn't a friend used in one of the Bond movies - can't remember which one but it was filmed at Meteora I think.

Which brings me to the other rule for climbing films, a peice of climbing kit must be used to kill one of the baddies, as in Roger Moore uses a peg (piton) as a trowing dagger.

In reply to graeme alderson:

I'd add the rule of totally inappropriate gear. Hence the absence of harnesses on the Eiger and the girlies taking ice axes caving in The Descent.

In reply to SteveM: So I guess by these rules Touching the Void ain't a proper climbing film

unless..............

In reply to SteveM: waddya mean inappropriate gear? If you are going to explore cave systems with glaciers and volcanic fumaroles in alternate chambers, of course you need that gear! Also you may need the ice pick to fight off the mutants.

In reply to michel4388:

So thats what Sly Stallone is doing in that poster! I just assumed he had joined the Village People and was practicing his camp mince.

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Good article...and not to be picky but for general information (as the areas in the movie are worth visiting):

"It is rumoured the directors of Vertical Limit decided not to shoot in the Rockies, as people might just think they were watching some sort of Cliffhanger sequel"

Cliffhanger was not shot in the Rockies but in the Italian Dolomites

Also, interestingly, Wolfgang Güllich did a lot of the climbing for sly…

Anyway the article was a good read and funny…

Actually there are only 3 classic events needed in a climbing film:

1. A disappearing top rope (Cliffhanger, Eiger Sanction, K2)

2. Buildering (Eiger Sanction, K2)

3. An unfeasible technical move (MI:2, Eiger Sanction, K2, Vertical Limit)

For an added bonus carrying a strange item (eg dynamite, gun, etc).

In reply to JamesM:

In reply to JamesM:

Oooh yeah. K2 a landmark in mainstream climbing movies. Its incredible how many times one man can climb the same bit of rock over and over again (see sequence early in the film on mckinley)... Personally I'm still waiting for the whole cat burgler/pussy thief conversation to happen in reality.....Oh, so many highlights in the film, it d**ks on all other films mentioned as the acting is so rough and wooden i get a splinter every time I watch it (for some reason I own it on video and dvd)

WHY WAS IT OMITTED????!!!! GENIUS

In reply to I am the God of Strathyre:

Hah hah! LOL! ask Neil Morrison about that.....

In reply to graeme alderson:

Touching the Void is classed as a documentary, 2nd best ever made apparently, behind 7up which was several parts so not a documentary.

Anyway, great article, really made me chuckle, but a couple of points:

1. Read the review of Vertical Limit and they were saying about a professional climber smoking. Don't a few of them smoke? I know Simpson and Yates did when they went to Siula Grande from the book.

2. Secondly and somewhat more importantly, these films are simply that: films. If you watch a cop movie with a proffesional policeman, he'll tell you it's a piece of shit. Watch most films with someone who knows what they're talking about in their field, and they'll point out the errors. It's no real surprise, you just have to accept the fact that it's not exactly realistic and watch it as you would Lethal Weapon...

In reply to Pete E:

Well said. A realistic climbing film, even one involving high adventure and some epics, would actually be really boring (that said, I think Vertical Limit could still have been fairly gripping if shorn of all the silliness)

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Five Days One Summer has some cracking climbing footage,
and stars Sir Sean as a dirty old man who goes on a climbing holiday in the Alps with his niece...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083947/